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Camaro Celebrates 45 Years of Awesomeness

On this date in 1966, the Chevrolet Camaro went on sale at Chevy dealerships across the country. No longer did the Mustang corner the market on small, sporty cars: The pony car wars had begun.

Forty-five years later, we're taking a look back at the car that's become an icon. Though it's had ups, downs and even a seven-year hiatus, the Camaro has held a special place in American history. That's why we're bringing you an unvarnished look, from the Yenko cars to the Berlinetta, the ZL1 to the Iron Duke.

Our guide on this journey is GM's resident Camaro historian Scott Settlemire. He's a former Camaro brand manager, known on Camaro forums as the "Fbodfather," whose relationship with the car started when his family's dealership first sold one in 1967.

Settlemire said that the reason the Camaro has endured is that everyone has a unique Camaro memory. Whether yours is of a mint '67 SS 350 like the one shown above, your older brother's IROC-Z or your kid's Bumblebee toy, enjoy these Camaros past -- both fine and forgettable.

1967 -- The Debut Model

After the runaway success of the Mustang, GM realized their Corvair just couldn't compete as a mass-produced sports car. Engineers began working on a coupe, code-named "Panther," that would have mass appeal but enough option packages to satisfy enthusiasts.

It was a big deal when the new car made its debut in June of 1966 at the Detroit Statler-Hilton Hotel. In a precursor to the video-conferenced, simulcast and liveblogged vehicle launches of today, the Camaro unveiling was broadcast across telephone lines to conference rooms in 14 cities. Narrators even described the goings-on when five attractive women and Chevrolet General Manager Pete Estes walked on stage holding signs with letters that made up the word: Camaro.

"If you start back at the very beginning, at the fall of '66, when we went to market with the car, it really wasn't marketed as a performance car per se," said Settlemire. "If you watch the ads, we talked about the fact the car started at $2,466 and it rode and handled like a higher-priced car."

As a result, though the public might best remember cars in SS, RS and Z28 trim, the less-powerful cars made up the bulk of sales -- just like the one shown above, with what appears to be a young Richard Carpenter behind the wheel. "While, yeah, we had a lot of high-performance engines, we sold a lot of six-cylinder engines," Settlemire said.

Photo: GM

1967-69 Yenko Camaro

Despite the car's sporting aspirations, GM refused to install an engine larger than 400 cubic inches in the first-generation Camaro. But Don Yenko, a racer and the son of the owner of Yenko Chevrolet in Canonsburg, PA, knew there was a market for a more powerful car. So he swapped out the engine with a Corvette 427, and the legendary Yenko Camaro was born.

Of course, swapping engines cost time and money, so Yenko approached GM to build the cars from scratch through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) system, whereby GM would build a 427-equipped Camaro on special order from Yenko.

Though a lot of the gearheads at GM supported the idea, (especially Vince Piggins, the Bob Lutz of his day), it was still a backdoor solution. "Officially, back then, we weren't talking," Settlemire said.

1969 Z28

The 1969 Z28 may not just be the perfect Camaro, but the perfect Chevy. Don't take our word for it, though. The car was recently crowned the greatest Chevy in history by a Chevy-sponsored poll of 125,000 people.

It's easy to see why: Quicker steering, standard front disc brakes, a four-barrel carb and those all-important rally stripes made up the complete American muscle-car package. Although Chevy rated the Z28 at 290 HP, it did 400 on the dyno -- and didn't void any factory warranties in the process.

Interestingly, though aficionados would gladly spare a kidney for a numbers-matching car in 2011, sales weren't that hot 42 years ago.

"The '69 car is interesting it was only the fifth most popular year out there -- we sold 220,000 of them in 17 months," said Settlemire. "But today, it's probably the most collectible one."

Photo: GM

1969 Penske Camaro

Unlike Ford, Chevy didn't have a dedicated racing budget back in the late '60s. They did, however, have Vince Piggins, an engineer who helped create the SCCA Trans Am circuit and convinced GM brass to build the 302 engine used in the Z/28. Chevy also had a dealership owned by Roger Penske, who figured out how to order enough "heavy duty" parts from the factory to modify his own Camaros, which dominated Trans Am racing in the late '60s with Mark Donohue behind the wheel.

When a car wins 10 out of 13 races in a season, regulators are sure to take notice -- especially considering Penske's history of acid-dipping cars to reduce their weight. Investigators were especially interested that Penske's Camaros had vinyl roofs in 1969. Penske claimed the roofs were for appearance purposes only and were cheaper to replace than a roof that needed repainting. Conspiracy theories were bandied about, and for reasons still unknown, he took off the vinyl after the first few races of the season.

When Roger Penske ditched GM to race Javelins over at AMC, Chevy hooked up with Jim Hall, whose Chaparral cars had revolutionized aerodynamics and car racing. Hall didn't make too many changes to the car, as it had been redesigned for that model year, but did manage to massage around 475 horsepower out of the 302 V8. Hall himself raced the car in the 1970 season.

Photo: GM

1971 SS 350

In its second generation, the car got bigger and wider, and became more performance-focused than the first-gen cars. For 1971, the Camaro got high-backed seats and the RS package included a two-piece front bumper commonly called the "split bumper." In SS trim, the car got a small block Turbo-Fire 350 engine and bright chrome accents.

Though it's an iconic car today, it's hard to imagine that when GM redesigned the Camaro for the 1970 model year, it wasn't universally beloved.

"It was just a knock-dead gorgeous car, but when it first came out, it was very, very controversial," said Settlemire. "The people who looked at it and saw European styling loved it. The guys who were traditional Chevy and Mustang buyers? This car didn't look like a Camaro all of a sudden."

Strikes, emissions regulations and new safety standards almost killed the second-generation Camaro in the early '70s, but it soldiered on through model updates until it was put on hiatus after the 2002 model year.

Photo: GM

1982 “Iron Duke”

Sure, the third-gen Camaro with the Iron Duke four-banger is the butt of almost as many automotive jokes as the Cadillac Cimarron. Yes, we know that it was developed as much to appease government regulators as to bring consumers into showrooms. And it's true the 90 HP engine barely propelled the car to 60 mph in 20 seconds.

But, you know what? Although GM didn't build that many of them, the four-cylinder sport coupes were still pretty popular, and within reach of cash-strapped consumers with Walter Mitty complexes.

It may seem like heresy to Camaro enthusiasts, but some people buy the car just for the looks. That's exactly what happened when GM put out a relatively inexpensive four-cylinder Camaro on the heels of a fuel crisis, when interest rates on new cars were north of 18 percent.

"We had a lot of men in Silverado pickups and F-150s and they owed $5k or $6k on the truck and now it's worth $2k or $3k because of the fuel economy," Settlemire said. For them, the Iron Duke granted them the chance to not only drive a brand new car, but drive a brand new Camaro. "They want a great looking car, they want it somewhat quiet, they want the interior to be nice," he said.

Like the ad shown above says, the four-cylinder Camaro was a car that will "capture your imagination." For some folks, the much maligned Iron Duke was a chance to step up to styling and handling they otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford.

1984-86 Berlinetta

Settlemire said that part of the Camaro's enduring popularity is that it's always been "endearing to all audiences." Hence, the third-gen Camaro could be configured as a fuel miser, performance car or -- in Berlinetta trim -- as a flashy "personal luxury coupe" with a dashboard that would put a Prius to shame.

Between 1984 and 1986, the so-called "Starship Camaro" not only featured a vacuum-fluorescent digital dashboard, but touch-sensitive controls and a big ol' Delco cassette-equalizer combo mounted on a retractable pod. So while your buddies did burnouts in their Z28, you could watch the speedometer burn out right before your eyes. Totally righteous.

Photo: GM

1985 IROC-Z

Remember that guy your parents didn't want your older sister to date? Chances are he was blasting Whitesnake loud enough to blow out the Delcos on his 1985 IROC-Z.

Back in the day, however, the IROC-Z wasn't just shorthand for performance with a 1980s twist. More than a quarter-century later, it might seem somewhat quaint that the IROC-Z's top engine only put out 215 hp. But at the time, it was just about the best American-made sports car you could get -- short of a Corvette or a Mustang SVO.

Photo: GM

2002 Camaro B4C U-2 Chase Car

Landing a U-2 spy plane is hard. With no visibility and an aircraft that highly susceptible to crosswinds, it's impossible to know exactly when and where to land. To complicate things, you've only got a bicycle landing gear and two removable "pogos" holding up the wings.

That's why another U-2 pilot in a chase car follows the plane while it's landing, calling out altitudes over radio and ensuring that it's lined up on the runway. "It's the only plane in the world where a copilot is in the car," Settlemire said.

Chase cars were originally woefully underpowered El Caminos, then Mustangs. The B4C "Special Service" Camaro -- basically a Z28 hardened for police use -- was a perfect fit for 100-plus MPH sprints down runways.

The Camaros have been replaced by Pontiac G8s, but those will eventually need to be replaced. "I'm hoping they'll use Camaros again," Settlemire said.

Photo: US Air Force, Staff Sgt. Justin Jacobs

1969 and 2012 Camaro ZL1

The innocuously named COPO 9560 was an option that added more than $4,000 to the price of a new Camaro. For that money, lucky buyers got the now-legendary ZL1, an aluminum block 427 V8 hand-assembled by Chevy engineers in a "surgically clean" room.

Considering that pristine ZL1s have sold for close to half a million dollars, that extra $4,000 offered nearly a 6,500% rate of return. Unfortunately, buyers didn't see it as such a great investment. Only 13 cars were sold through the dealership owned by Fred Gibb, who requested that the ZL1 be offered. The rest were raced, sold through other Chevy dealerships or returned to GM to be re-engined.

Fast forward to 2011. Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, bought the first new ZL1 offered to the public (above), paying $250,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auction last Saturday.

While we doubt the latest ZL1 will be as collectible as the original four decades later, it's still a pretty impressive car: 580 horsepower and 556 lb.-ft. of torque from a specially tuned version of the same engine found in a Cadillac CTS-V mated to a six-speed manual. It's powerful, it's pure, and it's everything that the Camaro has stood for over the past 45 years.